After a period of so-so adventures in 2001-2, Dungeon has really picked up steam again (I've bought it religiously since no. 19 or so), and I actively look forward to each issue. This is even higher praise if you consider the fact that I run a campaign with Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and therefore have little to no chance of actually running the great adventures I get in my mailbox each month.
You have consistently set the bar ever higher, which is why I was quite surprised to see an adventure like Bright Mountain King in issue 142.
3 things: You actually expect one 16th-level character to get the McGuffin (i.e. Darsam-tor-ews)? And when the adventure takes the fact into account that you don't get to be 16th-level without learning to take care of your stuff, the only advice DMs get is that Carradoc will send his minions to steal the club. Not that good a briefing for a very likely situation.
Second: The cutaway diagram doesn't really show me how the whole staircase-in-the-shaft thing works. There's no scale to the map, and the steps aren't drawin in.
Third, and this is a whopper: The hoard at the end of Bright Mountain isn't detailed. The whole adventure, but especially this chamber (M19) makes some pretty hefty assumptions of a kind I haven't seen in the magazine since the early-mid nineties.
Frankly, Bright Mountain King, while it had an interesting premise, didn't live up to the standards set by the other adventures in that particular issue and in those of recent years that have gone before it.
Third, and this is a whopper: The hoard at the end of Bright Mountain isn't detailed.
i was also shocked at the lack of description of the treasure hoard at the end. was this ever addressed?